We have no choice but to keep hoping for peace

Among the many traditions of the holiday season is the proclamation of an earnest yearning for peace on Earth. We wish it devoutly, no matter how bleak the global circumstances at the time or the unlikelihood that this gnawing desire will be fulfilled.

It can be difficult to contemplate peace in a war-torn world, when religion often seems to be a root of that violence. That can be seen most profoundly by looking to the Middle East, where a long history of sectarian strife now includes the very troubling chapter currently being written. Israel's war in Gaza, sparked by an atrocious assault by Hamas, rages on amid unfathomable destruction, a mounting death toll, and a growing humanitarian crisis. Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon also flared dramatically, and tensions with Iran continue to simmer. Meanwhile, longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was swept out of power by a rebel group in civil war-torn Syria, leaving that nation with a fraught present and future, and Turkey is still at fierce odds with Kurdish groups in Syria.

With cataclysm a seeming hairbreadth away, it is logical to think that the region must be at an inflection point where something simply has to change. Can it — and we — really accept a future of endless enmity, marked by ebbs and flows of calm and torment? Peace on earth would seem to begin with peace in the Middle East.

Elsewhere, the bloody conflict between Ukraine and Russia grinds on nearly three years after the onset of Russia's unjustifiable aggression. Civil wars continue in Ethiopia, Sudan and several other African countries. And the United States continues to experience its own kind of war — our ongoing plague of gun violence.

All that discord — indeed, much of humanity's history — could lead one to conclude that, as a species, we are hostile to the concept of peace on Earth. And yet it also is undeniable that our pleas for it around this time of year are genuine and fervent.

Peace needs more than pleas, of course. It requires skillful and tenacious diplomacy among intermediaries and a willingness among combatants to accept peace. Which really means, a willingness by those combatants to accept one another's existence.

The apparent bleakness of achieving peace should never dissuade us from seeking it. Seeking peace, or at least a cessation of hostilities, is almost always the right thing to do. But the pursuit of peace must be more than a holiday paean. It requires a year-round commitment, a constancy of dedication, a culture that will accept nothing less.

The road to peace on Earth is long, but we must believe it is not endless.